Apologies and Thanks
by pika318
Summary: The hero, Emilia, attempts to thank Lucifer for helping her. (Takes place post-Sariel kidnapping incident and during the Sales person scam arc. i.e. last episode of the anime, Vol 7 of the light novel or Chapter 25-26 of the manga)


**Apologies and Thanks**

* * *

Yusa Emi paced around the perimeters of Villa Rosa, muttering to herself.

"There's no reason to thank him, right? Come on, he tried to kill you…"

The hero was in a bit of a dilemma. It has been two days since she had been rescued by Maou from the archangel Sariel. Shortly after that, she has discovered a tracking device in her handbag and promptly pummeled the one who planted it. The perpetrator being the former demon general turned NEET, Urushihara Hanzo.

"Geh, why do I even feel guilty anyway?" She said to herself, a little bit louder then before. "I mean, it's not like he planted that tracking device expecting me to get captured by a crazy angel, right? The intentions were definitely evil in the first place."

_But if he didn't do that, Maou would never have found me or Chiho. Who knows what Sariel would have done then._

"It was a stroke of luck, that's all." Emi convinced herself. "There's absolutely no reason to need to thank that NEET."

She smiled to herself as though enlightened and then she suddenly sighed.

"Ugh…a hero shouldn't be so petty. I guess I should thank him after all, what's the worst that could happen?"

_If I don't thank him, I'll probably keep thinking about this and lose sleep._

In fact, she could almost hear her father's voice telling her to say thank you to anyone who has helped her.

With that, she slowly trudged her way to the door of Room 202, without falling off the staircase.

_Ok, just say thank you and get the heck out of here._

She knocked on the door of the Demon fortress and to her surprise, the one who opened the door was not Ashiya, but their neighbor, Suzuno.

"Eh, Suzuno?"

Suzuno was dressed in her usual kimono with her long hair pinned up and covered with a head scarf.

"Oh, hello, Emilia. What brings you here?"

"Wait…Did that bastard, Maou ask you to help him take care of the house again?! What about Ashiya?" Emilia asked. "Did…the demon army finally fall apart?"

Just a day before, Ashiya had humbly requested Maou to let him leave for a short while for some unknown reason. Then after that, Maou had chased Emi and Chiho out of the house saying that they have some private matters to discuss.

"Um…no. The demon army is still together, unfortunately." Suzuno said.

"THEN ARE THEY PLANNING TO CARRY OUT SOME CONQUEST?!" Emilia shouted, hoping her worse fears will not occur.

"No…it's not that either." Suzuno gave a look of exasperation upon hearing Emi's weird ideas.

"So why isn't Ashiya around?"

Suzuno looked a bit troubled. She had promised Maou that she wouldn't tell Emi or Chiho what was going on.

"Emilia…are you looking for Maou? If you are, he isn't around. He just left the house to settle some matters."

"Suzuno, are you hiding something?"

"Yes. Maou asked me to and I have no intention of releasing the information." Upon noticing Emilia's horrified look, she continued. "It's nothing as serious as you think. Ok, maybe it's a bit serious but it has nothing that you should involve yourself in as a hero."

Emi frowned. It was obvious that it was something that Suzuno did not want to talk about.

"So Emilia, if you have no more business here, I advise that you return home." Suzuno said, bowing apologetically. Suzuno was about to close the door when Emilia stopped her.

"Wait wait wait…uh, I wasn't here to look for Maou."

"You aren't? I thought that's your only reason for coming here." Suzuno tilted her head.

Emi blushed furiously at that statement. "Please don't say things that can be taken the wrong way. I'm here to look for Lucifer."

Suzuno's mouth opened to a 'o'. As expected, she looked very surprised.

"You nearly threw him out of the window and now you're looking for him to finish the job?"

"Noooooo…" Emi grabbed her own head and groaned. "I'm not here to kill him. I'm over that already."

"I was just joking." The kimono-clad woman giggled.

_I wouldn't be able to tell since you looked so serious._

Suzuno opened the door wider to let Emi in. At this moment, Emi gaped at the sight of a tower of fluffy futons, a couple of fire extinguishers, magazines, fruits and a water filter on the floor.

"Lucifer's there, behind the futons…moping." Suzuno said softly while pointing at the tower.

Emi removed her shoes and slowly approached the 'tower'. Peering around it, she spotted the third resident of the household. He had his knees drawn up to his chest and was just sitting there, looking visibly upset. Emi glanced at Suzuno, eyebrows raised and she mouthed the words "What happened?"

Suzuno just pointed at the pile of junk that was in the middle of the room.

_Ah…my guess is that this idiot angel just went to buy useless stuff again and got scolded._

"Oi." Emi said, trying to get Urushihara's attention.

Upon hearing her voice, Urushihara jumped and saw her.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, sounding defensive.

"What's with this junk? You bought them?" Emi asked.

Urushihara looked away, not saying anything.

There was an awkward pause and Suzuno decided to fill Emi in on what happened.

"He got tricked by a scam salesperson and ended up buying all these things. Maou went to find the company behind this to get the money back."

"Oh…how in the world did a demon general who struck fear throughout the Western Isle of Ente Isla get scammed into buying things?"

"It's none of your business."

"I mean, even if you are not working, the least you could do is stop spending so much money." Emi said, her arms crossed. She knew she struck a nerve when Urushihara suddenly stood up, his face red with anger.

"I was trying to sell my computer parts to get some money back! I'm so sorry for being too stupid to realize that I was getting scammed!" The fallen angel shouted.

"To get…money back for?"

"The tracking device that I put in your bag! Which you destroyed!"

"Don't make it sound as if it was my fault that it got wrecked. Any one would get rid of a tracking device found on them! Why the heck did you even put it in my bag in the first place?" Emi shouted back. She was fuming mad as well.

"To make sure that you won't do anything to harm us!"

"What, as if I'll do something that evil!"

"You're the hero!"

"That doesn't mean I'm constantly plotting to kill off all of you!"

"Ok stop!" Suzuno stepped in between the two before a fight breaks out. "Emi, you didn't come here just to pick a fight right?"

"Well, no."

_I was here to apologise. How did it turn out like this?_

"Since you're here and Lucifer told you that much, I see no point in hiding things any further. I will tell you what happened."

* * *

"40, 000 yen?! That little thing cost so much?!" Emi exclaimed in disbelief.

"So the funds for the demon fortress is in the red now. Ashiya went to earn money and although I am reluctant, I will be paying for a third of the cost. For it is technically my fault that you and Chiho-dono got kidnapped."

"Why didn't that damn Maou just say so?"

"He doesn't want you or Chiho-dono, especially Chiho-dono, to feel guilty about it."

"And now that idiot angel got scammed out of another 40,000 yen and Maou went to the company to get his money back."

"Yes."

_I heard of these things before. Those people would use many unscrupulous ways to prevent the granting of a refund._

Emi took her bag and called Sasaki Chiho.

"Hello, Chiho-chan, are you free right now? You are? Great! I need some help here. I'm at Maou's house right now…"

* * *

"Hai…we narrowly adverted that crisis." Maou said, giving a sigh of relief as the last of the items got removed.

He turned to Emi, Chiho and Suzuno and bowed.

"Thank you all so much for your help!" Maou then pulled Urushihara over and pressed his head down.

"Tha…thank you." Urushihara stuttered.

"Oi, do it properly." Maou chided as he pushed the smaller demon's head lower.

"It's ok. You don't have to go that far." Chiho said, a bit embarrassed.

Emi looked at the scene and started thinking.

_That Maou can thank others so easily and I can't even do something like that._

Emi herself went a bit red at that thought.

_I can't let the Demon King be even more gallant than myself!_

She walked to Urushihara who had decided to sit at the table and eat oranges (To clear the last bit of evidence that such an incident ever happened from Ashiya.)

"Oi, Lucifer."

Urushihara glanced at Emi and muttered something which she couldn't hear because he was biting on a piece of orange.

"Eh?"

"I said I'm sorry for planting the tracking device on you. I was just trying to play a prank on you." Urushihara repeated himself, a bit louder that before.

Emi was a bit taken aback by the sudden apology and couldn't reply.

"And I'm sorry for…taking your wallet…and…other things." At this moment, Emi noticed that Urushihara's face was getting steadily redder.

"Ah…" Emi finally found her voice. She coughed a bit. "Well, that was a long time ago. I'm ok with it already."

_Gah! Can't I use the word 'forgive'?_

"Oh." Urushihara said. His head was lowered and he seemed to be trying to cover his embarrassment by eating more orange slices.

"And…uh…" Emi started.

_WHY AM I GETTING EMBARRASSED?!_

"Well, even though I don't like the fact that you were attempting to spy on me, it helped me and Chiho out in the end." Emi said, very quickly. "I don't know what would have happened to us if not for the tracking device."

Emi bowed.

"Thank you very much."

Urushihara stared at Emi and dropped the orange he was holding.

"And I'm sorry for trying to throw you out of the window."

Urushihara opened and closed his mouth a few times, attempting to say something. Just then Maou walked over and said, "At times like this, you should say "You are welcome.""

"You're…wel…wel…welcome…" Urushihara finally managed to say. He hastily picked up the orange he dropped and moved the computer table, his face as red as a tomato.

Maou glanced at Emi who smiled as though she had gotten rid of a burden.

"You know, it's just a simple sorry and thank you. What is there to be shy about?" Maou said, raising an eyebrow. He actually directed that statement at his demon general but Emi mistook the statement as being meant for her.

"NOT EVERYONE IS AS THICK SKINNED AS YOU!" Emi shouted and then left the house with a huff. (After quickly saying good bye to Suzuno and Chiho)

Maou looked confused as Emi left but decided not to think too much about it.

* * *

Moko-chan: Yep, another story done. This one is based off chapter 25 and 26 of the Hataraku-maou sama manga or chapter 1 of volume 7 of the light novel. The anime is slightly different, I think.

If I'm not wrong, in the anime, it sounded like Lucifer bought the trash on a whim but in the novel, it was written that he was attempting to sell off computer parts to get some money back for the tracking device. (But ended up buying things instead.)

In the manga/light novel, there was a wonderful scene where Chiho thanking Lucifer for saving them leading to him being completely embarrassed and denying it by saying the one who did the actual rescuing was Maou.

Actually, I don't know why Lucifer put the tracking device on Emi. It's more of a prank than him being paranoid in my opinion.

Well, until next time.


End file.
